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The company: A start-up founded in 2017 by researchers from Aarhus University, is already an established provider of kits to analyze DNA methylation for research. Our product is based on patented MS-HRM technology. Major competitive advantage of our product is that it makes methylation analyses significantly more simple, less time consuming and more cost-effective than similar products that our competitors provide.

The product: Our product will ultimately consist of 4 components constituting the full SAMPLE-to-RESULT solution. In 2018 we introduced our minimum viable products (MVP) to the market. In 2019 we developed the 2nd version of the kit and quadrupled the revenue. In 2020 we experienced a significant drop in our revenue due to COVID crisis but already in Q1 2021, our sales are increasing. Now, with the customer feedback we are developing the 3rd generation of our kit.

Market: There are two addressable markets for our product. Initially, we launched our product to Research Use Only (RuO) market as sales to this market require only quality control that we can provide with our current production line. In 2022 we aim to enter and introduce our product into the in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) market. The IVD market is challenging from a regulatory perspective. However, this market is a very lucrative business opportunity because in the IVD market our RuO product can potentially be sold for a much higher price of 20X or more. Already in the early stage of company development our MVP was able to successfully compete for market share in the RuO market. We provide a solution that is simple, cost and labor efficient and unlike the majority of the competing technologies and products enables methylation analysis on standard laboratory equipment. Now our customer feedback clearly indicates a need for a full SAMPLE-to-RESULT solution. This trend is not specific to our solution but general in research where with increasing pressure to publish all researchers actively look for the solutions that allow them to accelerate research. From 2022 it is our aspiration that we will significantly increase our revenue because the tests that we have developed for the research market will enter into diagnostic use (IVD). The IVD version of our kits differ from the use because a clinical decision will be made with our test. That is why our RuO kits need to be produced under quality control regulated by EU regulation 2017/746 and undergo clinical validation. To access a certified production line for our IVD product, we are in discussion with partners including Eurofins Scientific and Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc., both of those companies are our present subcontractors in production of RuO kits.

The team:

CEO and Co-founder of MD, has 15 + years of experience in translational research, with focus on emerging technologies, product development and commercialization. Holds a PhD in Medicine. with 40+ scientific papers published.

Board member and Co-founder of MD. LLH has been dedicated for >26 years to epigenetics and cancer genetics research, Author of 90 scientific papers and one patent, with H-index 28.

Product Development Specialist; degree in biotechnology, chemistry and process technology and has 29+ years of lab experience.

Spørgsmål til panelet

- Growth strategy - including sales strategy and customer segmentation. The market is large enough to scale the company but what is the best strategy to reach the customers.

- Partnerships to scale - research groups, distributors or biotech companies. We do have collaboration agreements with several research groups, but due to the covid crises the development has postponed. How to engage partners to use our technology?

- Financing strategy - including possible capital injection. How to choose the first IVD indication/disease and strategy to gain an investment for the IVD product development and launch?